Adult learning has benefited from the visibility and profile of lifelong learning across a range of European policy areas. The overall profile of adult learning benefited enormously from the European Commission's decision to group all its education and training programmes together under the brand of the "Lifelong Learning Programme." The…

During the affluent noughties it was sometimes said of government that it had "more visions than Mystic Meg and more pilots than British Airways". In 2011, the pilots, the pathfinders, the new initiatives are largely gone--implementation is the name of the game--but the visions remain. The latest one, as it affects adult learners, is in…

Demonstrates the importance of the use of nonformal education programs for teaching basic survival skills to adults in developing countries. (Availability: Dept. of Adult Education, Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS 66506) (SK)

The community is a natural setting for autonomous, democratic adult education. A framework for connecting the community and adult education has three mechanisms: community formal adult education, community nonformal adult education, and community informal adult education. (SK)

The author brings together the question posed in Kathryn Ecclestone's article in last month's "Adults Learning--"Where's the vision?"--and the letter from Wayne Bennett, General Manager of Dillington House, about the threat to residential colleges. The author brings out some of the connections between them and issues surrounding adult community…

Traditional teaching methods are not appropriate for adults who have a bank of existing knowledge. Nonformal education must begin by finding out what people need to know and prepare materials and programs that are relevant to perceived needs. Improving adults' understanding of science and mathematics must proceed upon these principles. (SK)

Although most of adult learning is not formal, adult education focuses primarily on formal schooling. To help resolve the paradox, the author suggests an approach to nonformal adult education using interpersonal learning resources and natural learning. (MF)

Includes "Take Your Partners for Adult Learning" (Carlton); "Museums Must Recognize Needs of All Users" (Anderson); "Charts, Ships, Models and the History of Time" (Coben, Lincoln); "Alternative Ways of Learning" (Sullivan); "Older Adults and Family Learning" (Reynolds); "Multiculturalism,…

A transcript of a dialogue on independent, self-directed learning is presented. The three presenters, Ron Gross, Tom Hebert, and Allen Tough, and audience members discuss learning, schooling, discovery, motivation, public policy, and how all of these affect values and the quality of life. Nonformal, nonaffiliated learning--which takes place at…

Suggests four characteristics that any training programs for women in developing countries must share if they are to be effective: (1) they must utilize adult learning principles and (2) participatory methodologies; (3) train for action; and (4) build self-confidence. (MBR)

A model is presented to help clarify the concept of lifelong learning. Constructed on the idea that an operational definition of lifelong learning should be based on the locus of control for making decisions about the goals and means of learning, the model is a two-by-two matrix of learner and institution that represents four identified situations…

The editor of "Convergence" sets the stage for this special issue on women and adult education by discussing the Women's Programme of the International Council for Adult Education. ICAE's agenda includes research on women's participation in adult education and on a new kind of learning which reflects women's situations and viewpoints.…

Discusses a program in which adult groups (that meet regularly for educative discussion in settings other than educational institutions) can be given support through an academic department's provision of resource materials. Provides an example of support provided to the National Housewives Register, a group which discusses issues and social…

This paper sets out an agenda for higher education that will create a society in which lifetime learning is encouraged, valued, and rewarded. The paper presents five key issues that must be defined in order to achieve these goals: (1) the role of higher education; (2) the role of public policy; (3) how resources and intellectual property are to be…

Through their own inventiveness and persistence, adults are circumventing institutional indifference and creating alternative educational networks to teach themselves art. Problems that must be overcome are as follows: inadequate instructor preparation, a generally narrow array of programs in most community centers with the preponderance of…